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Grazlash's Route Creations, Collaborations and Renovations

After considerable consideration, soul searching and navel gazing, I've decided to start this thread as a way of consolidating the screenshots from all of my projects.
I have two main routes of my own that I am working on, VR Goulburn Murray Lines and ARTC NSW Main South - VR North - East. Both are undergoing extensions, renovations and realignments to bring them up to TRS19 standard.
VR Goulburn Murray Lines v4 will add the branch line from Murchison East to Rushworth and out to Colbinabbin and Stanhope. The route is mainly set in the 1970's 80's with a few exception such as Tocumwal which is of a more modern era. T340 leading a local goods, departing Rushworth on the Colbinabbin / Stanhope branch. VR Goulburn Murray Lines v4 WIP

NR34 & NR51 leading an empty steel train between Seymour and Mangalore at dawn. ARTC NSW Main South - VR North East

ARTC NSW Main South - VR North East is being extended to the south to take in Seymour township and to the north, adding the section between Bethungra and Cootamundra. The Oaklands line between Benalla and The Rock has been added as well. I've updated textures to PBR and removed the poor performing billboard trees. The track has been updated to procedural track and much realignment and grading has been done to bring the track profile closer to prototypical, but with such a large route there's still much more to do. The Victorian part of the route is set in the 1970's due to the majority of signal diagrams being from that era, while the NSW part of the route is set in the early 2000's for much the same reason.
I also have two routes which are being produced in a collaboration. NSW Illawarra South Coast, which is in collaboration with Taggy. It is pretty much just scenery for that one. I'm also doing scenery on the Melbourne - Geelong route working with H222 who has done the trackwork. Signalling work is still required on the whole route and a lot of landscaping is needed before each area has scenery applied.

Since the TRS19 Early Access, I have enjoyed route renovations to TRS19 standard, something that is getting easier as more PBR ground textures are produced. In August 2018 I started a thread of lists of quality routes on the DLS in a effort to find more routes to enjoy, as I came late to Trainz, but also to help the new Trainzers coming in. https://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...est-of-the-DLS
I found that many of the routes in the "Misc" category had great potential for renovation due to the complete lack of speedtrees. These routes are hard to find becuse they do not show up as a route in CM DLS, so I trawled the "Misc" category for routes over 150kb and downloaded a stack of them for testing. Once MSGSapper produced his Truly Seasonal texture series, I set about renovating Morristown & Erie by GFisher to fully seasonal TRS19 standard. The route needed a repair to the config straight off and there were a lot of HOG textures showing, but they also marked where elevations had changed. One section of overhead wiring had also sunk below a bridge, but once the faults were fixed it was fairly straightforward to renovate with textures and trees.

MORRISTOWN & ERIE
Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

I'll post some before and after shots of another route renovation next.
cheers
Graeme

This is an older route which is crying out for a renovation. In TRS19 the billboard trees leave a lot to be desired, all of the textures are at the largest scale and there is no grass at all. The buildings are in good shape but the roads are very low res.Wingersheek freight and locomotive depot. TRS 19 Original environment settings.

After downloading the route, which is found in the "MISC" category in Content Manager, I had a look at the dependencies for the route and checked the unknowns in a google search and found from a forum post that they were all locomotives and rolling stock.
I then took a look around the route to see what work was required and went to the menu and deleted missing assets, this removes faulties as well. I found that the route would be a lot simpler to renovate than I expected, so I fired up the Bulk Asset Update / Replace Tool. (BAURT for short.)

Wingersheek freight and locomotive depot. TRS19 default environment

Before I started I determined that a non seasonal makeover would be better as there would be more variety in the textures and tree groups available. Being a fictional north east USA route it's still probably an option for fully seasonal later.

Salisbury before

Salisbury after

As there are tree splines and groups to be replaced, I went to CM and made a picklist with all of the TrainzBuild 3.9 tree groups as while they still work, they can only be used via a picklist and do not appear in the "Objects - Add Objects" asset box. I've found them exceptionally handy for replacing the older tree groups.

Wingersheek before

Wingersheek after

Wiscasset before

Wiscasset after

In the "bulk asset" tool I used the "get objects from world" button and when encountering a tree group such as RED PINE GRP1, I dragged in this case SpeedTreeGroup_04 from the picklist to the replacement box and hit begin. These speedtree groups are also available for placement in Surveyor by double clicking on them in the picklist.

Grazlash,
I just stumbled onto your thread where you were "renovating" the Wingersheek and Wiscasset to TRS19. I am absolutely stunned at how amazing your changes have been for the route.

The towns (and locations) listed are real, located around Cape Ann in Massachusetts, but the route is fictional. I spent many summers in the area of the towns, picked blueberries in Dogtown (an area in Gloucester), ate lobster in Essex at the Lobster Land restaurant, and it was so much fun to find the route in TANE. I've run the route a bit, on and off, the past few months. It did look a little rough in TANE, but that didn't deter me.

Now I see what you've done to bring the route into TRS19. It is amazing. The before and after shots really show off how your efforts are making the route literally pop off the computer screen. I am really looking forward to your TRS19 version. The changes in the trees has had a most dramatic effect on the route, and the water effects in your shot of Annisquam are off the charts.

Thanks so much for breathing new life into this route. It's incredible what you've done with it!

Thanks Roy and Heinrich, I'm really glad you are enjoying what I'm doing. Renovations are something I do while having a break from building and sorting out problems on my own routes and it also lets me see how the old masters built their routes. A post in the Australian Screenshots thread by Lesley, showed me how my route could look better by replacing some assets, until that point I was building to the standard I could see around me, low res 2006 style. I set about changing all of the textures and trees on my routes to achieve a high definition look. Once TRS19 came out it was apparent that billboard trees just didn't cut it any more, so out they went. I like visually appealing and operational routes so I set about renovating my old favourites from TANE and earlier. The trick is practice and knowing your assets.
Wingersheek and Wiscasset has taken about 3 hours so far with the most time consuming part being setting up and laying the TurfFX and Clutter and texture rotation after reducing the scale. Heinrich, thank you for the information on the towns and the area as it gives the route a 'personality' and substance where no route exists in reality. I really should seek permission to release on the DLS as I'm very happy with how it's turning out.
cheers
Graeme

ARTC MAIN SOUTH VR NORTH EAST V2 WIP
I've managed to get a bit more done around Goorambat on the VR part of the Oaklands line as I had a spare hour this morning. I'll need to run power, lights and a few more fences yet and theres still more to do at the farm supplies business at the east end of town. Here's a few progress shots.

Hi Graeme,
I really enjoyed looking at what you have done with Wingersheek.
I still run Pilskene's Austral Bay route as part of a large merged route in Tane.
As I have made the decision to not get 2019, you have given me some great ideas to smarten up the old route.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks Mike and Mick, I'm really happy with the way Wingersheek turned out and it wont be long before I'm in Yarrawonga.
MELBOURNE - GEELONG WIP

This route is lucky to still be alive and kicking after TANE crashed while building and corrupted the entire route which now will not open at all. I do have a TANE backup which works but it's a fair bit older than where I'm currently up to. Fortunately I always transfer it to TRS19 for progress shots, so I can save myself about 20 hours work of rebuilding it in TANE, but it will have to be continued in TRS19.

Sunshine - showing the standard and broad gauge mainline on the left, suburban lines to the right and past the silos is the line between Sunshine and Newport

South Dynon loco depot - Still a fair amount of roadworks to complete in this area before more scenery.

West Footscray station looking towards Tottenham

Spotswood station looking towards Newport

Williamstown station with Newport workshops in the background

At the other end of the route, Corio station looking back toward North Shore